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Tag: marketing

Over the past few weeks I’ve had conversations with a variety of people about the marketing/sales funnel, which I wrote about recently1. Even though many would consider a clear understanding of where your customers are coming from—and how to scale those channels—an essential part of business (which it is), many companies simply haven’t defined their marketing/sales funnel.

A sales funnel, when combined with marketing techniques such as a streamlined marketing CRM, can be an important way of ensuring your brand delivers exactly what it is that your customers are looking for.

For those who have an intimate understanding of their funnel, the temptation is to be critical of businesses who don’t. When you step back, though, the context for most companies without a funnel is understandable and, in some cases, even justifiable.

A few weeks ago I gave a talk explaining some of the lessons I’d learned about marketing as I helped grow The Iron Yard. As I reviewed my presentation with the conference organizer, one slide towards the beginning caught his attention. Here it is:

His advice on that slide was, “you should explain what the marketing funnel is. Not everyone will know what that term means.” His observation was a great reminder that, when you are fully steeped in a discipline, concepts that are second-nature to you probably aren’t to people outside of that discipline.

I have a fair amount of experience in the world of agency and client work. One thing that always struck me as interesting about both worlds is the need for a perfect plan.

A majority of the system is built around carefully crafted and detailed plans and, equally as, if not more important, the sale of those plans to the client. To some extent, this is understandable: Why would you give someone money if you didn’t know exactly what they were going to do with it?Continue reading The Best Plan is the One That’s Happening